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squiz
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Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3071
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12th March 2014
Hiking - Walking: Semnoz Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered:
Wednesday 12th March – walk **** sunny
Got away with parking at the Ermitage and did exercises at the beautiful
view point:) After pastries for breakfast we drove down the hill to
Talloires and had a walk along the edge of the lake in the small park.
There were several people out rowing:) We walked up into the town (2
shops!) and saw an English removal lorry moving people into a café –
must be their new venture, very brave! Drove to the south end of the lake
and went for a two mile walk around the Reserve Naturelle du Bout du Lac
which was very nice with different habitats ranging from woodland paths to
the lake to duck boarded marshes and rivers where there are apparently
beavers but we didn’t see any. We saw several lizards and a pair of
Jays. There was an old derelict building with a staircase running up
inside it so you could use it as a view point across the lake. After
leaving there we found a lovely spot for our lunch right on the edge of the
west side of the lake overlooking the castle which looks like it is
privately owned. We read our books and relaxed there watching at least 30
paragliders at a time soaring over the mountains opposite. On our way back
to Annecy we past the Europa camp site which we are sure is where we stayed
20 years ago. Looking back it is clear that that holiday was quite life
changing as it resulted in us meeting Mel and Colin (who were the kids reps
for the site) and consequently learning to ski through staying with them in
their catered chalet in Peisey Nancroix. It also lead to Stephen’s
venture into paragliding. We carried on to Semnoz – a ski resort up in
the hills on the west side of the lake. It is a very strange place – the
road winds round the pistes which go on and on! There are lots and lots of
cross country skiing and raquette pistes all around and alpine skiing mixed
in too. We couldn’t find the place to get a lift pass until we had
driven up and down a couple of times! We found it eventually at the bottom
and a really lovely girl with funky hair sold us a lift pass for 6 hours
for 37 euros including insurance and the electronic card! It is a
brilliant system – you can buy from 1 hour to 10!! The whole thing is
open from 8 until 6! The most expensive pass is 16 euros. We think our
days of going to huge and expensive resorts in the high alps are definitely
coming to an end! You can get so much more for your money and lots of fun
in these smaller resorts. It was very busy here when we arrived because we
have now discovered that the schools have a two week half term last week
and this so there are a lot of kids on the learning slopes. There are also
lots and lots of people walking and cross country skiing too so hoping that
the alpine slopes wont be too busy. We drove up and down a few times to
find a good place to park which didn’t involve us being at an angle or in
deep snow! There is a huge amount of snow up here and a lot of the parking
is on snowy verges. Finally decided to park at the top of the resort with
the most amazing views across the snow and lower mountains to Mont Blanc:)
Had a good old tin of cassoulet for tea:)
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